Monthly Archives: May 2015

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to La Biosthetique’s Press Launch held in Damansara Perdana. I was thrilled, of course, as La Biosthetique is one of the salon-exclusive brands that I trust and I’m happy to find them here in Malaysia!

It’s always so comforting to know that there’s a go-to brand you can choose in a salon even when you’re in a different country. 😉 I’ve trusted La Biosthetique ever since it was first introduced to me in Europe a couple of years ago and my impression hasn’t changed.

Kylie Jenner lips are all the rage these days. But let me just put this out there: There’s a fine line between plump, healthy-looking lips and channeling Daisy Duck. There, I said it. Hit me, Kardashian/Jenner fans. 😛

I’m a fan of healthy-looking lips with just the right amount of plump. 😉 And speaking of plump lips, I was given a tube of ISKIN NewYork’s LipAddict Lip Addict Voluptuous Lip Plumper a while back to try and review.

It did take me a while to actually give it a whirl as normally, I’m more of a lipstick than a gloss kind of girl. In fact, I need the proper mood and hairstyle (all braided up or tied so it won’t stick to my lips when KL decides to be windy) for trying glosses. 😛

So on a bright, windy, and busy day in KL, I decided to braid my hair and see whether this gloss will live up to its promise of ‘plumping’ my lips. The info sheet it came with even discouraged women from getting lip injections since you can get the same effect with the product. Wow. That’s a pretty big promise and I was actually curious whether the gloss can live up to it.

I was given the shade ‘Sexy Seductress‘. Hmm. Sounds rather flirty, doesn’t it? *side glance* And the colour is actually rather seductive – a cross between a sexy pink and a bright red.

ISKIN New York is quite known in the skin care department so I was quite surprised when I was given this product to review. I was told, however, that this gloss is also good for my lips as it has anti-ageing properties and even hyaluronicacid and marine collagen to keep my lips hydrated throughout the day.

The LipAddict also contains peptide which penetrates the top layer of your lips to create new collagen. Continued use of the gloss promises to make your lips smoother and look fuller.

So sorry for yet another short hiatus! I was in Siem Reap over the weekend getting my Tomb Raider on with the husband. But that will be for a different post on a different day. 😉

Today, I want to share with you guys an awesome deal I was lucky enough to get to try last week! 😉 And it involves oh-so good food for a good price!

I was invited by a couple of friends to try out the latest menu that Sky 360 especially curated for Parents’ Day. Since my folks are not in KL, I brought my husband along to help with the taste testing and we were practically blown away. (And I don’t say this lightly)

So, without further yapping to get you bored, I’m gonna dive right in and share with you the goodness, shall I?

My absolute favourite and the star of the show is the Grilled Lamb Shoulder with Black Pepper Sauce. The lamb is grilled to perfection – charred on the outside and extremely tender on the inside with the prettiest hint of pink. The sauce is thick and tasty with the right kick of spice along with the savoury. It comes with mashed potatoes, coleslaw, corn on the cob.

The lamb even passed the ultimate test: my husband. He normally doesn’t eat lamb because of the smell it comes with when it’s not fresh. But that night, he actually loved the lamb and gave it a rare thumbs up! 😉

If you’re more of a white meat kind of person, there’s also the Grilled Chicken Chop with BBQ Sauce. It also comes with the same side dishes as the lamb – mashed potatoes, coleslaw, and corn on the cob. The char-grilled chicken chop is also tasty, perfectly grilled, and comes with smoked hickory BBQ sauce that is not short on the flavour at all.

Normally, I’m not a fan of aglio olio pasta as I find it too oily for my liking. But this seafood variant that they served us totally changed my mind. First, it’s actually to pretty to eat. Look at that presentation! When you actually do get over how awesome it looks and you finally dig in, you are surprised with an explosion of flavours in your mouth. I would have to admit that I had quite a lot of this pasta that night and I had to go to the gym the next morning to burn all the calories. No complaints, though! It was worth it!

“This is so you, Carol”, my friend Miriam said as we entered the Frankitas gallery in Damansara Heights. And I do think she is right.

I don’t really remember when my love for tribal (actual tribal patterns – not the ones you score in F21) and traditional cloth started. But it has turned into a bit of an obsession. I remember my first piece (that I bought) being a T’nalak skirt from the T’boli tribe in South Cotabato, Philippines. The T’nalak is literally made out of dreams as the weavers have to dream of the patterns they use before turning them into a woven masterpiece.

Stories like these make traditional fabric much more meaningful – that’s why I fall in love with them over and over. And you know what? I’m extremely happy that I am not alone in this love affair.

I met Francisca “Franki” Turner-Shaik at the media launch for her brand Frankitas. She uses traditional, woven fabric from all over the world, turning them to pieces that are fit for the modern-day woman. She is creative and has so much passion for the art of weaving and helping out the weavers. I loved her right away! 😉

For most of my life, I’ve always been the skinny girl (much to my dismay). But these days, I’ve been getting so many compliments about how toned and fit I look. That’s all thanks to doing EMS training religiously, of course.

I couldn’t be any prouder of what I’ve achieved so far. Especially since I worked so hard for it! Granted that my workout is only twice a week for twenty minutes each session, the high intensity made sure that I got the results I wanted – fast.

Most of the people who noticed a difference on my body often point out that it’s my legs and my butt that look so different nowadays. And since everyone’s been asking about it, I figured – why not make a post about it?

A cooking event I attended earlier today reminded me that I haven’t been posting much about my cooking. So I decided to just share with you guys this quickie post on one of my favourite types of comfort food. Almost effortless to make and so yummy!

But be warned! This is very fattening! So try not to eat everything on your own. Sharing is caring after all! 😉

I made this for my husband back when we first got our electric oven. So yes, this post should have gone up months and months ago but it ended up in the bowels of my file folders. 😛 Some of the photos even got lost that’s why I only have two to share. Here I go again, justifying the lateness of this post. Sorry. 😦

I actually saw this recipe while watching a cooking show back when I was in college. I think this is a really easy dish to make and can even be served to your guests if you plan to entertain at home. So, without further ado, (and so I can go to bed since I have a long day tomorrow) here’s the recipe which I’ve continuously modified through the years:

Ingredients:

2 large potatoes

2 tbs butter

A dash of salt

2 cloves of garlic, diced (or if you have garlic powder, use 2 tsp)

1 tbs sour cream / creme fraiche

1/4 C parmesan cheese

1 C Irish cheddar cheese

1/4 C milk

1/4 tsp pepper (for the mixture, not for rubbing the skin prior to baking)

For someone who never really dabbled with anything Korean before moving to Kuala Lumpur for our first posting, the recent effect of the Korean wave on me is just crazy.

From skin care, to makeup, and even on our television. It’s starting to hit me pretty hard albeit quite late. But you know what they say – better late than never!

My friends here in Malaysia even introduced me to K-Drama – something I ignored as I never imagined I would like it. And here I am, all done with My Love From Another Star in just a little over 2 days of marathon-watching. (Don’t ask what time I slept last night. LOL.)

The Korean influence is even stronger in Filipinos back home, I must say. (K-Pop has a very big and quite loud fan base there) However, it’s here in Kuala Lumpur – where their products are much more accessible – that I decided to really open my door to it. Not that I refused to like it before. I was just used to sticking to my overly-Western preferences and I thought that everything about it was too cutesy (from their beauty products’ packaging to the way their actresses behaved) for me.

But now, after trying out their skin care, makeup, and even their drama shows, I actually have more variety in my life. Don’t expect me to act cutesy and do baby-talk in public like Korean actresses do or blast K-Pop in the car, though. I seriously doubt that that image would suit me and my in-between-features the way it looks good on my friends who actually do look Asian.

And speaking of Korea and everything that’s so awesome from their country, another Korean skin care brand decided to set up shop in Malaysia. Woohoo! I’m pretty sure we don’t have it in Manila – yet. But I’m hoping they open there soon as well as I am sure they will be as big of a hit there as in KL.

Belif is a skin care brand that marries apothecary traditions and cutting-edge Korean skin care technology. Their first store in Malaysia is located in Sunway Pyramid Mall and I fell in love with the interior right away.

Disclaimers and Disclosures

This blog is personal and will always remain to be.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are exclusively those of the author’s. They do not, in any way, represent thoughts, opinions, policies, and the direction of the Philippine government, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the media outlets I used to work for, and even that of my husband's.

Come to think of it, our opinions differ – a lot.

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Sponsored content will always be labeled. However, sponsorship of any kind will not affect my views on each product or service I review. If it's bad, I'll still say it is.